civil rights

Danny Glover Sees Centuries of Struggle in the Amazon Union Drive

This interview originally appeared on The Real News Network. One of the most historic union votes of our era is underway right now: 5,800workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, are currently voting on whether or not to unionize with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. If the union vote is successful, workers at …

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She gave the President the finger. Employer gave her the boot.

Juli Briskman was on her own time, riding her bicycle, when President Trump’s motorcade drove by. She expressed her personal feelings with a middle finger salute, not realizing that a news reporter had captured her gesture on camera. She abruptly lost her job after the photo went viral on social media. Her employer, a government …

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King and Meany Brought Civil Rights and Labor Together for a Legacy That Continues Today

Beginning in 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and then-President George Meany of the AFL-CIO began a relationship that would help bring the labor and civil rights movements together with a combined focus on social and economic justice. Meany was an outspoken defender of individual freedom, and in March 1960, he emphasized the crucial link between the …

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The Trump Administration’s Backdoor Plan to Erode the Rights of Workers to Act Collectively

On October 2, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that implicates the very concept of collective action. NLRB v. Murphy Oil asks whether it is a violation of workers’ rights to force them to enter into arbitration agreements that prohibit collective or class litigation. Such agreements, often entered into as conditions of employment, require workers …

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If Trump Has His Way, You’ll Certainly Miss This Agency You Probably Don’t Even Know Exists

The Trump Administration has released its proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year. Who’s set to lose big if this budget comes to fruition? Women—specifically working women and their families. The only federal agency devoted to women’s economic security—the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau—is on the chopping block. The agency, which currently has a budget of only …

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At MLK March, Renewed Call For Obama Executive Order on Wages

WASHINGTON, D.C.—On the eve of a march to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, labor and civil rights activists are calling on President Barack Obama to honor King with an executive order that would raise wages for as many as two million workers. One of the most poignant calls came Wednesday …

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EEOC loses battle (but not war) on discriminatory background checks

When it dismissed a federal lawsuit last week, the U.S. District Court for Maryland made it even harder for workers with poor credit histories and past criminal convictions to find a job.  Civil rights advocates hope the decision is not a bellwether for similar cases pending around the country. The lawsuit, brought by the federal Equal Employment …

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Madeline Messa

Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.